Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Well, this was my very last week as a missionary...I don't know how I feel! I feel like Pennsylvania is my home, so it feels very strange to be leaving. First I had to leave my home in Idaho, and now I have to leave my home in PA! It was an emotional Sunday for us here in Monongahela. I have grown to love these people like family. I will miss them so much, but I am so excited to see my real family again!

This week was a great last week! I was expecting it to be a long week, but it was probably the shortest week of my whole mission!

We taught this wonderful family on Thursday. We followed up with their reading in the Book of Mormon, and the mother said she had read through HELAMAN. She continued to testify of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. She knew through the power of the Holy Ghost that it was true. She told of the spiritual experiences she had when reading in Mosiah about King Benjamin. I can't even explain the joy and the Spirit I felt when listening to her testify to me. I never thought I would be so happy at the success of others. I truly feel as Alma in Alma chapter 26 of the Book of Mormon:

13 Behold, how many thousands of our brethren has he loosed from the pains of hell; and they are brought to sing redeeming love, and this because of the power of his word which is in us, therefore have we not great reason to rejoice?

14 Yea, we have reason to praise him forever, for he is the Most High God, and has loosed our brethren from the chains of hell.

15 Yea, they were encircled about with everlasting darkness and destruction; but behold, he has brought them into his everlasting light, yea, into everlasting salvation; and they are encircled about with the matchless bounty of his love; yea, and we have been instruments in his hands of doing this great and marvelous work.

16 Therefore, let us glory, yea, we will glory in the Lord; yea, we will rejoice, for our joy is full; yea, we will praise our God forever. Behold, who can glory too much in the Lord? Yea, who can say too much of his great power, and of his mercy, and of his long-suffering towards the children of men? Behold, I say unto you, I cannot say the smallest part which I feel.

I am so grateful to Heavenly Father for allowing me to be part of these miracles. He is rolling forth a marvelous work and a wonder. This work is REAL, and it's hastening.

Okay funny thing...our investigator told us he would meet us at Dairy Queen on Saturday night for ice cream, so he could see us before I leave. We showed up and waited for a while in the car, and he never pulled up hahahah. We just chuckled because we got stood up by a 50 year old man...dang I didn't think we were that ugly! Just when we were going to leave, we see a couple from our ward walking in, and they invited us to have ice cream with them. I love how Heavenly Father works! He is so aware of us. I have come to love the tender mercies of the Lord. How do I know God is real? It is because I can see He is an active part of my life. If you're ever wondering if He is there, just look, and you will see He has been blessing you all along!

These 18 months have taught me a lot.........and I mean A LOT. I don't think I realized what it actually meant to have an eternal family before coming here. I've always loved my family, but being away with such little contact for 18 months really makes you appreciate what you have. Some of my fondest memories are with my family. I know the family is ordained of God. Heavenly Father doesn't intend for our family units to be close on earth and not in heaven. He has provided temples for us where we can be sealed to our spouses and children for time on earth and all eternity.

I'm thankful to my parents who have taught me important principles as I was growing up. They taught me to follow Jesus Christ. Others can attest to the fact that I failed quite a bit in that area, and I'm sorry for all who I have hurt or offended. I will continue to make mistakes, but my heart now truly understands WHY I need to follow Jesus Christ. I will strive my best to develop his attributes. I love the Savior. He is our exemplar, teacher, brother, and friend. Follow him and keep his commandments. Great depths of peace will follow.

I know Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ appeared to the boy Joseph Smith and restored the Church of Jesus Christ established anciently. I know there is a prophet on earth today making this church a true and LIVING church. The direction we receive from the Apostles and Prophet is revelation straight from God for the whole world. If you want to be aligned with God's will, follow the prophet. You won't be led astray.

Okay okay okay I love you all!!!!! I'll see you in a few days!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The Gospel of Jesus Christ is true!!!!!!!

Thursday, July 9, 2015

This week was literally AMAZING!!!! Seriously it might have been the best week of my mission so far.

Monday we went to Kennywood which was seriously soooo fun!! We rode a whole bunch of rides, and we even got to share the Gospel!! We rode something called the Sky Coaster. Sister Ewell, Sister Duncan, and I were in a harness, and they hooked us all up to this big cord and raised us super super high up into the air. Of course they picked me to be the one who pulled the lever, so when we got up as high as it would go, someone spoke through a microphone and said, "3, 2, 1, Fly!" I pulled the lever and we totally just dropped hundreds of feet and flew in the air hahahaha. Sister Ewell was crying, but it was so fun!!

Wednesday we went to Girls camp for the day. We taught a little workshop on "sharing our light." I love a quote by President Monson who said, "If you want to be a light to others, you have to glow yourself." In Matthew 5:16, it says, "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." Christ indeed teaches us that we need to share our light.

Well, in 3 Nephi 18, Christ has appeared to the Nephites in ancient America, and he teaches them about light as well. I love what he says in verse 24.

"Therefore, hold up your light that it may shine unto the world. Behold I am the light which ye shall hold up--that which ye have seen me do." Christ defines light as HIMSELF. Yes, we need to shine our light, but first we must develop the light that comes from Christ.

Everyone both onto this earth is born with the light of Christ in them. The light of Christ is, according to Moroni in Moroni 7:16, the ability to know good from evil.

"For behold, the Spirit of Christ is given to every man, that he may know good from evil; wherefore, I show unto you the way to judge; for every thing which inviteth to do good, and to persuade to believe in Christ, is sent forth by the power and gift of Christ; wherefore ye may know with a perfect knowledge it is of God."

SO we're all born with this light, but we can grow and develop this light as we follow Christ. I don't know about you, but when I'm consistently trying to do what's right, it's easier for me to feel what is good and what's bad. If I'm reading my scriptures every morning, it's so much more easy to make good choices throughout the day.

Going back to the scripture in 3 Nephi, we need to share our light, and that light is CHRIST. How can we develop our light further? I can think of four things off the top of my head that are MAJOR MAJOR MAJOR contributors-- prayer, scripture study, church attendance, and obedience to God's commandments. I know when we do those things, we grow in our light. The only reason I know this is because I've consistently done them for a while now, and I have seen how they have blessed my life--they have brought me closer to Father in Heaven and Jesus Christ.

^^sorry, I'm just so excited about the lesson we were able to share, and I know these things to be true

Thursday we went on exchanges with the Sister Training Leaders, but we blitzed our area which just means both sets were in our area doing work, so we were able to see double the amount of people we're usually able to. This was honestly one of the very first days we had completely open. Recently we've had a lot of different trainings to go to and we were spending hours updating and transferring records onto our iPads, so it felt so good to get outside. Each set went to different cities and went finding those the Lord had prepared, and BOY DID WE EVER!

Sister Palmer and I stopped by an investigator's house, but she wasn't home. Instead of getting in the car and driving to the next place, we walked down the street and saw a lady working in her yard. She took very good care of her yard, so we complimented her on it. We kept talking to her and found out she was having a pretty hard time in life. We were able to share with her principles of the Plan of Salvation with her. We testified of an afterlife and the opportunity to see our families again.

A few minutes later, we talked to a guy sitting on his porch. He knew about the Book of Mormon already, so we testified it was from God and set up a time to come back.

A FEW MINUTES LATER we met a lady by total miracle who had taken the lessons in Ohio anut a year ago and just moved here. She recognized the Lord sent us to her, so we talked about how this Gospel changes lives and transforms families and set up a time to meet

I'll just mention one more miracle that happened this week. Two nights ago, I lost the phone. We searched EVERYWHERE around the house and in the car and outside. It was about 10 o'clock PM, and we couldn't find it anywhere. We sad a couple of prayers and still couldn't find it. The thought came to ask a neighbor to call our phone. We knocked on the only house with lights turned on. This guy answered the door and invited us in. We talked with him and his wife, and they were just the sweetest people ever! They just returned from seeing Donny Osmond, so that was a cool gateway into talking about the gospel. Anyway, they walked up to our house and called the phone, and within 2 minutes, we found it in the couch cushions WHERE WE HAD LOOKED MANY TIMES BEFORE. I truly believe God wanted us to find this couple. It was a miracle

This week was full of miracles! Oh, and we get to go to the temple tomorrow I'm so excited!!

This week was great! I literally love our ward soooo much! They are HILARIOUS! We teach a Book of Mormon class each week, and this week I honestly was trying not to crack up. We were reading 1 Nephi 3, and we were focusing on the principle of faith. Somehow the conversation went from faith to, "Now what I'm wondering is why did they bring tents? What kind of tents were they, and how many did they have to bring?" "Well what about their teeth? Wouldn't they be all gross? They would have so many cavities." "No, it's all about the gum disease." Hahahaha I just die! I love them all so much!

This week we had plans to do service at St. Vincent de Paul's, but a series of unfortunate events happened, and we weren't able to. It worked out perfectly though because we got a call from a lady in our ward who really needed help at that moment. We got our work clothes on and helped her load tree branches into a trailer . It was cool to see how God's hand was in that day. Everything cancelled which made us pretty sad, but then we filled the day with a really meaningful activity!

Thursday was a complete miracle day. We went to one of the sketchier parts of our area, it we came out alive, so there's that. Just from being there for 3 hours we set an appointment with people we haven't been able to get a hold of lately, teach another lady about the Book of Mormon and committed her to read it, and found a new investigator!

We had met this younger woman probably 3 weeks ago, and she was very interested in learning about the Book of Mormon, but we could never find a time that worked for us to stop by. We left it alone for a while, and then we ran into her at the store. She expressed she was looking for help because they needed food. We promised we would try to help, but then we weren't able to go to that area for about a week and a half. During this time we gathered up all the food we could find and put it in a box and then into our trunk just in case we would see her randomly. SO a week and a half later (which was this Thursday), we stopped by her house, and she wasn't there. Her father answered though, so we talked to him. We were walking off the porch, but we really felt like we needed to just give the father the food we gathered. Right before he shut the door, we hollered, "Wait!! We have food for you!" He was so thankful and welcomed us right in! We were able to teach them about the Book of Mormon!! Her mother had read a couple of chapters already and invited us to come back :) We were so excited!!!!!

Saturday we taught two young girls about the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I haven't taught many children on my mission, so it was a pretty new experience for me. In Preach My Gospel, the book Missionaries study from, President John Taylor said, "It is true intelligence for a man to take a subject that is mysterious and great in itself, and to unfold and simplify it so that a child can understand it." I'm not saying I'm intelligent, but I am saying Heavenly Father has helped me understand this message over the course of 18 months of study, that I felt confident in simplifying so these little girls could understand. It's hard to express in words how I felt, but it was a neat experience for me. These little girls glowed! They loved what we taught, and they came to church the next day. We are so happy!!!

I spoke in church yesterday! The subject I was given was how knowledge prepares us to serve God. It was an AWESOME topic, and I learned a lot! It's a bit hard because I really wanted to prepare for the talk, but there was never time haha. I pondered the subject of course, but I basically just got up there and talked about the revelation God had given me on the subject. It was super cool because I never felt like I ran out of things to say. I'm grateful Heavenly Father helped me organize my thoughts and present the message. I also remember feeling a distinct warmness inside. I'm grateful for the Comforter who is sent from God to help us in all situations.

Well, that's all the writing I have in me today! Actually I'll share a scripture I read this morning. Alma 28, "2 And thus there was a tremendous battle; yea, even such an one as never had been known among all the people in the land from the time Lehi left Jerusalem; yea, and tens of thousands of the Lamanites were slain and scattered abroad.

3 Yea, and also there was a tremendous slaughter among the people of Nephi; nevertheless, the Lamanites were driven and scattered, and the people of Nephi returned again to their land.

4 And now this was a time that there was a great mourning and lamentation heard throughout all the land, among all the people of Nephi--

5 Yea, the cry of widows mourning for their husbands, and also of fathers mourning for their sons, and the daughter for the brother, yea, the brother for the father; and thus the cry of mourning was heard among all of them, mourning for their kindred who had been slain.

6 And now surely this was a sorrowful day; yea, a time of solemnity, and a time of much fasting and prayer.

11 And the bodies of many thousands are laid low in the earth, while the bodies of many thousands are moldering in heaps upon the face of the earth; yea, and many thousands are mourning for the loss of their kindred, because they have reason to fear, according to the promises of the Lord, that they are consigned to a state of endless wo.

12 While many thousands of others truly mourn for the loss of their kindred, yet they rejoice and exult in the hope, and even know, according to the promises of the Lord, that they are raised to dwell at the right hand of God, in a state of never-ending happiness."

Because of Christ, we can overcome physical and spiritual death-- two things that would keep us from living with God again. Rest assured there is a resurrection and a life after we pass from the earth. If we live righteously, we need not fear death so much or have as much pain as the Lamanites did at the death of their loved ones. Yes, of course we would mourn if one of our family members died, but we would have a brightness of hope that we would see them again and that they are in a state of peace and happiness.

I hope that made sense! Okay well I love you all, and I hope you all have a chance to come to Pennsylvania because it is the best place on earth!!!!!!!!!!